Unique stories from Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va.

A Special Message from Busch Gardens

At approximately 7:30 p.m. Thursday, a quickly moving storm caused a weather-related incident at our park. A sudden gust of wind knocked an inflatable prop into the path of a Griffon coaster train, which came to a stop at the top of the coaster’s second hill. We escorted our guests safely from the coaster train and treated them on site for injuries. Five of those guests were transported to the hospital where they were treated and released.

Since then we have taken all of the necessary precautions to keep our park safe. Griffon was inspected and is running smoothly, and the inflatable props have been removed from the area.

Safety is our highest priority. If you have any questions related to this incident, please e-mail us at socialmedia@buschgardens.com.

Happy to know the park is able to stop the ride on track and get them off so there not in pain the rest of the ride thanks bg for everything and shutting it down to make sure it will run smootly next time it ran again

Here is what happened as I personally saw it. Our family was there waiting to get on Griffon when the storm hit. I don’t blame BC for the accident but I do think they were to slow in shutting it down. The storm was ugly and plainly visible before the accident happened. In talking to one of the store cashiers we were informed that the weather bureau informs BC when a storm is within a certain proximity to the park. In fact the rides we were told were shut down earlier in the day because of a close storm. Somebody I feel dropped the ball. Yes the coaster hit the balloon (it sounded like an explosion) and was stopped at the upper level. It took I would say some time for anybody to start up the steps to free them. Meanwhile they were getting pounded with heavy rain and lighting while they waited and relatives on the ground were frantic. Yes it was a fast and freaky storm but I could see it a good time before it hit. I really think that someone should have been watching it especially since they had already shut down once that day. As I write this my son is taking our camcorder tape and coverting it to digital. So keep a look out on U-Tube.

That was my father posting. I am digitizing the video, but not to post on YouTube. The video is going to be sent to BGE as requested by them. I have no plans at this time to post the video to YouTube. Just wanted to clarify that 😉